Chapter 124

Melanie’s POV

I spent the next few days in what I’m pretty sure qualified as hibernation mode: waking only to pee, eat enough to keep my stomach from staging a revolt, and answer Theo’s baby babble a couple times a day. Asher hovered somewhere between “always there” and “ambient background,” flicking between typing furiously on his laptop, watching dumb action movies on mute, or curling up in wolf form next to me like a furry little heating pad. His human half never curled up with me—he and I had silently agreed to keep our cuddle quotas strictly to wolf-Asher—and honestly? I kind of liked it that way. His wolf was nothing if not sweet, all playful nudges and happy tail-wags, a living night-light that made the dark room less scary.

The pack swung by on rotation to help Theo while I dozed. I hated having to accept it—never been good at asking for help—but I was also weirdly grateful and thanked every single one of them so much they probably dreamed I’d follow them